


The Weight of Darkness

by naye



Category: One Piece
Genre: 1000-3000 words, Angst, Episode Tag, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-16
Updated: 2009-09-16
Packaged: 2017-10-03 13:34:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naye/pseuds/naye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>No regrets.</i> But what awaits after defeat?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Weight of Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> This one is _all_ [Eiliem's](http://eiliem.livejournal.com) fault. Because when I wrote fluff, she kept countering with angst! So I threatened to write something angsty to get her to stop _her_ angst, and. Uh. This happened. As a warning? It's set right after chapter 441. Ow, _Ace_.
> 
> Of course, took responsibility and betaed it brilliantly, giving me a new, interesting collection of epithets for Blackbeard and also a _title_ ♥ ~~that she stole from Oda~~.

Ace had single-handedly fought a Shichibukai to a standstill.

He had fought Whitebeard, and _lived_.

It pained him that this - this coward - would be the end of him. But he wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid, and the pain - the pain would be over soon.

He could draw another breath, and another after that. His battered, creaking ribcage protested, but he couldn't let the second darkness - the one that was flooding his vision like a slowly rising sea of night - win. He'd face what was coming, aware.

Defiant.

"I'm not afraid," he said. Tried to say. The words came out broken, wrong. So he tilted his head up - the sea sloshing on the edge of his awareness almost spilling over with the effort it took - and let his steady gaze speak for him. He'd have preferred to use fists, but - his body had stopped doing his bidding the last time he fell.

He blinked. Words had been spoken, and he slowly sorted them out.

"I know you're not afraid, Commander! But I fear you're quite mistaken."

Mistaken? The question must have showed in his eyes.

"I'm not going to kill you."

Teach hunkered down next to him, and Ace felt a jolt of shame at the way he almost flinched away. He wasn't going to show fear.

He wasn't afraid.

"No, Commander. Your death will be a while yet."

Ace blinked. Defeat - he had known defeat would mean death. It had meant death for Thatch, and - that's why he was here. Oh - Thatch. How would he be able to face Thatch - he swallowed. No regrets. No regrets.

But - what had the bastard said? Again, he had to search his memory, the words rattling around like broken glass. He gripped them, and hissed with the pain of it - with denial.

"Killing you would be such a waste. You have such potential! Oh, yes."

Large hands closed around his shoulders, and Ace gritted his teeth, holding back the moan of pain the contact wanted to wring from his battered body. His word tilted, shifted, black seeping through all other colors, and then he was moving.

Being carried, like a - a sack of meat.

His anger was hot, but there was no other heat. Nothing when he reached out - only the darkness. _Cold_. He bared his teeth.

Teach laughed, a loud, chafing sound. "Still have spirit! I like that about you, Commander. You never give up. And you fought well. Phew! I thought I was a goner for a while there! It's been a while since anyone gave me a workout like that."

Ace tried gathering words into his mouth, something to throw back at the enemy, the _traitor_. But when he tried to speak there was only blood, a small trickle of heat, bitter with the taste of defeat. He spat.

Teach laughed again, louder this time. "We got us quite the handful here, men!" he bellowed, and Ace could vaguely hear noise as there were answers. More laughter. At him. Because he had lost. He should be dead. Because... his thoughts were sinking, sinking. He had lost. Was losing to the darkness. He should be... like Thatch--

* * *

\--the night sea he had been drowning in before was draining away, slowly leaving him cold and wet but aware.

Cold. Wet.

The pain was the only thing that wasn't blurry, and the sharpness of it brought some focus.

He had lost.

He was alive.

He couldn't move.

It wasn't just the pain, protesting at every attempt he made to tell his body anything other than maybe _pass out_. It was something - there was something digging into the torn skin of his arms, of his chest. Stinging, adding a small pain to the larger ones.

It was hard to breathe. It shouldn't be this hard to breathe.

"Oh! Our guest is awake."

A voice. Too close, too loud.

"I'd rather say he isn't," someone else disagreed.

"His breathing changed!"

"Another one, then?"

Cold, wet, _salt_ \- Ace shook his head, weakly, trying to ignore the way it throbbed when he did.

Someone had thrown seawater into his face.

He blinked, and his eyes stung, but enough of his vision had cleared up that he could see the large man in front of him.

"Now he's awake," Teach sounded pleased.

"Told you he wasn't going to croak!"

"Right, right. We can't have that." The words were distracted. Teach was looking at Ace - intent.

Ace tried to hold on to a glare.

"Do you know what you've given me? You, Ace, are the best thing that's happened to me since we lost track of that Strawhat boy. Your brother, you said - well. I'm sorry that I won't get to collect the matching set, but this will do. This will most definitely do."

Teach's hand was on his head - proprietary, patting Ace absently.

Ace had gained enough control back over his body that he could flinch back - and that's how he discovered that he was tied to the main mast of the odd ramshackle raft this scum called a ship. His head impacted with a low thunk, and surprise more than anything else wrung a low complaint from him.

"No, don't do that," Teach said. "Can't have you hurting yourself." Then he laughed.

"Poor brave Commander. I do wish we could have done this some other way, you know - I really do. You're a good guy! I applaud your efforts."

No regret. There wasn't supposed to be any regret, but Ace had lost and yet he was _alive_, and it twisted so bitterly in him that he thought he might throw up.

His captain - his captain had known, and told him not to, and he had gone and... and now he would never return. The thought hurt more than his body.

His division. His nakama. His father. He had let them all down, and - he wouldn't see them again.

Wouldn't see anyone again.

Anyone... what had the backstabbing sonufabitch been saying about his brother?

"L'ffy," Ace forced the word out, unwilling to speak to his captor, but helpless against the threat to his brother.

"Strawhat?" Teach turned a contemplative eye to the horizon. "Out there! Wherever Water 7 is. We could always find him together." The man grinned his gape-toothed smile. "But you still don't want to join me, Commander? Do you?"

Ace clenched his teeth, and drew back his lips in a snarl.

"You're not really in a position to deny me anything, you know..."

"Never," Ace panted. "My captain is Whitebeard. I won't--"

Teach casually backhanded him. "Yes, yes. I spent far too long listening to all you idiots rave on about your captain."

Ace's head was thrumming with new, interesting sparks of pain flying everywhere from Teach's blow. He tried to ignore them.

"It's too much to hope for that you'd see sense enough to save yourself. Ah, well. Soon enough, I'm sure you'll be regretting your choice." There was a dark chuckle.

No regrets. No regrets. "No. Never."

Teach's smile was a cutlass, poised for the killing blow. "Oh, but you haven't heard what you will do instead of joining me, Commander."

Ace felt colder.

Colder and colder and colder. He was shivering.

Teach frowned. "You are being an absolutely lousy conversationalist! Pah. Rude!"

This time Ace saw the blow coming, and his instincts told him to _disperse_, but. He was solid. And cold. There might have been a little spark, something that glowed for an instant when the fist connected. He clung to the feeling, that little warmth - and missed the warning glint in Teach's eyes.

"Recharging so soon, eh? Oh, the wonders of youth."

There was darkness. Not swimming in the edge of Ace's vision - darkness, like the one that had pummeled him into the ground, that had sapped him of all strength. It crept out of the hand Teach stretched out before him, and Ace felt another horrible, heavy twist of fear. Rigid, he watched, helpless as the darkness wrapped almost tenderly around him - and then Teach closed his fist, and _pulled_.

Something tore out of Ace. It hurt worse than it had to catch his captain's punches, back when they had fought - hurt worse than the sea. He didn't scream, because there was no air in his lungs; no strength left anywhere. But he wanted to.

His eyes ran with silent tears, and his body was trembling, ropes digging into skin at the motion.

It was _so cold_. No heat, no fire, nothing left. Even the blood in his veins felt like seawater, leaden and stinging and leeching him of power instead of sending it coursing through his veins.

Teach was twirling darkness around his fingers, grinning. "Not bad, eh? When I've got the time to do it right, it's got the most interesting effect - don't you agree, Commander?"

Ace shivered.

"So, if I asked you now - what would you say? Join me?"

Ace fought against it, but the horror made him close his eyes. Just for a moment, if he could be somewhere else - somewhere he could be strong...

"No." It was hardly more than a breath. He opened his eyes, fully expecting Teach to lash out at him again, but there was another of those sharp, horrible smiles.

"Too bad." Teach shrugged. "I'm sure your precious captain would have understood - you would be doing it to save him, after all."

Ace gaped in horror.

"Whitebeard?" he managed to ask.

"Oh, yes. What do you think this is all about?"

Ace shook his head, too desperate to care that he was engaging the traitor in a conversation of sorts.

"This is about me getting a shiny new Shichibukai title - well, slightly used, but that Strawhat guy cleared the way quite nicely for me."

"Shichi-" working for the government. The government. "No," Ace protested, fear dragging him even deeper into the cold. "No."

"I'm afraid so," Teach said with mock solemnity.

Ace could feel whatever he'd had left of - hope, maybe - sink, deeper and deeper.

"Firefist Ace? Commander of Whitebeard's Second Division? They wouldn't touch you on their own, but _oh_ what a lovely prize you will make them, when you arrive all giftwrapped at their front door."

Ace shook his head in mute horror. If Teach was serious - if the government got involved... They wouldn't keep it quiet. It would all come out, and his father would come to rescue him because you did _not_ touch one of his sons unpunished, but.

The government. With all their might. Teach was going to hand them a greater prize than he imagined. Roger's son - no. In blood only, but it didn't matter. They would finish the job they had started with the man who fathered him, and the mother who had given her life for him.

And his chosen family would try and stop it, and - it would be war. And it would all be his fault.

At that moment, Ace understood the meaning of despair. He would do anything to stop it. Anything - his life, if he could. Anything - his pride...

He was getting some control back. No warmth, but strength enough to speak. His voice shook, almost breaking. The words were the hardest he had ever spoken. "I'll do it."

"Commander?" Teach said, seemingly attentive.

"I'll - what you said."

"Join me?"

Ace nodded, numb. If it could save his father - he'd carve the mark off his own back, if it was what it took.

"Follow me?"

Ace tilted his head forward again, a single time.

"Ah. So you do understand your position."

Ace closed his eyes.

"Answer," Teach said, not unkindly.

"Yes," Ace rasped.

"You will help me hunt for the Strawhat? The boy you said was your brother?"

Ace's eyes flew open, but he couldn't speak. He couldn't speak. It was too much. To deny Teach would condemn his crew - to agree; his brother.

The blow to the face didn't even count as a distraction against the way his heart was trying to twist its way out of his chest to escape the pain. He shook his head in mute distress, like a trapped beast.

Teach looked at him for a long moment, then sighed. "You would leave Whitebeard's crew?"

"Yeah." To save them. To protect them from the consequences of his own foolishness.

"Then prove it. Swear to me you will follow me to Water 7 and I will set you free right now. We could drink together! Laugh!" Teach eyed him critically. "Gently wrap you up in bandages, or whatever it is Doc Q would do."

The words wouldn't come.

He would have given his life for his captain. He would have given his life for his brother. But this choice - maybe Whitebeard would understand. He was wise beyond anything Ace had ever known before - wise enough to have known how foolish and dangerous his son's quest was. If Ace had only listened to him -- too late now.

But Luffy. Luffy did not understand deception. Luffy did not understand _danger_. Could not understand the danger of Teach, would _never_ understand enough to let it go. Even if Ace managed to warn him - it was too easy to imagine the stubborn denial, the challenge. The inevitable end - the darkness claiming his little brother as it had claimed _him_. The way it couldn't claim Whitebeard, because for all his talk, Teach still knew to fear his former captain.

Luffy, bound in darkness, his friends cut down around him.

_No._

"No."

Teach tilted his head. "So - you would still deny me? For that one little brat?"

Ace's face twisted, and he growled. "My _brother_."

Teach sighed. "Ah, well. It was worth asking... You should have seen your face!" And then he walked up to Ace, laughing all the while.

Ace's glare didn't waver, and he didn't flinch this time, as darkness started curling from the edges of Teach's hand.

"I'm so sorry, but - this is going to make the voyage nice and quiet for all of us."

Liquid blackness reached for him, surrounding him like choking brambles, and as everything grew dim, there was pain, and cold, and one single thread of sanity to cling to.

His little brother would be safe.


End file.
